Carmen review: A production that achieves what it sets out to do

3 / 5 stars

Carmen, Royal Opera House

BIZET'S Carmen has long been one of the most popular of all operas but don’t worry if you have seen it before: this Carmen, directed by Barrie Kosky, is quite unlike anything you or indeed anyone else has ever experienced.

First, the stage design is distinctly un-operatic consisting almost entirely of a massive staircase more suggestive of a scene in a Hollywood musical or Cabaret than an opera.

Second, and more important, this is musically not the Carmen we all know so well, but is based on an attempted reconstruction of the opera as Bizet first envisaged it – not just its first distinctly unsuccessful performance in 1875 in Paris, but to a large extent the opera as Bizet envisaged it before the producers insisted on changes.

Australian director Kosky has, as might have been expected, come up with a multitude of ideas to present Carmen in a new and striking manner.

His two most recent productions in this country have amply demonstrated his imagination.

First there was Saul at Glyndebourne, which was more of an oratorio than an opera as Handel originally wrote it.

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The music is based on an attempted reconstruction of the opera as Bizet first envisaged it

Kosky’s production achieves what it sets out to do, but whether he should have been trying to do such things is another matter

Kosky’s staging made it beautiful to watch and was a considerable achievement.

Then there was Shostakovich’s The Nose at Covent Garden, which featured an unforgettable chorus of tap-dancing noses.

Both those works needed something extra to lift the music and Kosky provided it.

The question with Carmen is whether it needed any major changes and whether those that Kosky provided were beneficial or detracted from the opera.

Before trying to reach a verdict, let me mention some of the performers.

Russian mezzo-soprano Anna Goryachova in the title role sang delightfully, showing an impressive range and clear tone.

Her slim build and limited stridency in her voice seemed more appropriate to Mimi in La Boheme or Violetta in La Traviata. This was not the buxom gypsy we all know so well.

The Italian tenor Francesco Meli was perfectly adequate as Don Jose, but again the singing was better than the acting.

The role becomes increasingly desperate as the opera progresses, but until he kills the woman he loves at the end, there was insufficient emotion in the performance.

The Covent Garden orchestra, as always, performed magnificently, despite the efforts of conductor Jakub Hrusa to move the speed up a notch or two for most of the time.

ROH

The orchestra performed magnificently despite efforts by the conductor to speed it up a notch or two

This increased the level of excitement but led to some awkward moments for the singers resulting in an occasional lack of synchronisation with the orchestra.

The biggest trouble, however, was that staircase which created the impression of the whole thing being a staged performance rather than a real story.

In the previous Covent Garden production of Carmen, the matador Escamillo (sung this time by Latvian bass-baritone Kostas Smoriginas) made his entry on an impressive black horse.

Horses, of course, have problems negotiating staircases, so that particular coup de théatre was out of the question.

The only comparable moment was Carmen’s first entrance in which, for some unaccountable reason, she was wearing a gorilla costume. That was just silly.

On the other hand, the use of the chorus, running in and out, up and down the stairs and often huddling together on one side of the stairs, added momentum by giving them an additional role as observers.

They also performed some excellent hand-jiving and high leg-kicking dances, but what that had to do with the plot is unclear.

This enhanced Kosky’s other main innovation, which was to have the usual spoken dialogue replaced by a recording of a sultry voice occasionally moving the story forwards.

This all rather distanced the story from what we were watching, which reduced the emotionality of the storyline.

At the end, when Kosky appeared at the final curtain, there was a good deal of booing but a considerable amount of cheering too. I felt support for both sides.

Kosky’s production certainly achieves what it sets out to do, quite brilliantly in places, but whether he should have been trying to do such things is another matter.

Box Office: 020 7304 4000 or roh.org.uk (in production until March 16). The March 6 performance will be relayed to cinemas around the world part of the ROH Live Cinema Season.